S640+ MEDIA LITERACY / OLYMPICS AND POLITICS

In the podcast-only version of Studio 640, the panel continues its discussion on media literacy from the radio show, including reaction to a well-known journalists’ admission that the media wrongly targeted Donald Trump. The panel also discusses whether the Olympics are really that relevant anymore. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey there, thanks for downloading Studiosix forty plus. This is Steve Gregory.
We've just wrapped up taping the radioversion of Studio six forty So Studio
six forty plus is our podcast onlya version of the program, and we're
going to be talking now a littlebit about some stuff we were talking about
on the radio side, but weneeded more time to talk about this media

(00:21):
literacy. It's an important topic.And then we've got another topic that's coming
up that did not appear on theradio show, so enjoy. So we've
been discussing a few issues here withthe panel of student journalists coming from Los
Angeles Valley College and cal State LongBeach. We talked about Biden, we
talked about Harris, and now we'retalking about media literacy and sort of the

(00:42):
approach journalists should be taking when coveringthese elections, covering anything kind of of
a contentious nature. So I wantedto start right out of the shoot this
hour asking the question do you thinkthe media has been fair to Donald Trump?
Yes? And no, But Ialso don't know if it's really their
job to necessarily be fair as itshould be to scrutinize information. I mean

(01:06):
as I mentioned earlier, I've seennews media outlets come in on his supposed
to pay But at the same time, you know, I think that sometimes
they're too lenient and they allow forhim to get away with things that aren't
necessarily true. Do you have anexample during COVID, he was spewing a
lot of misinformation about COVID, andI think that some news media outlets,

(01:33):
especially ones that are more right wing, were not fact checking him the way
that maybe they should have been.But you can say that for left leaning
news media outlets, I think youcan say that they're not really fair to
anybody, or necessarily completely unfair.It depends. So I got to ask
you. So you talked about duringCOVID, and I covered COVID extensively here

(01:56):
at KFI, and I had toquickly become a quasi expert on stuff.
But most of it was database datadriven, but you had to also be
careful where you were getting your datafrom. When you said that President Trump
was putting out a lot of misinformation, how did you know it was misinformation?
You look at the amount of peoplethat were being hospitalized for COVID cases,

(02:19):
and you look at the what wasgoing on the amount of people that
were dying, the effects that theywere having right at the beginning, and
he was making it seem as ifit wasn't as bad as it was.
He was trying to downplay everything.He was trying to make it seem as
if, you know, liberals andleft want to take away your rights and
not allow you to have, youknow, bodily autonomy over whether or not

(02:40):
you can wear a mask. Idon't think anyone was being punished for not
wearing a mask, but businesses weresaying, if you don't wear a mask,
we're not going to legally let youenter, because we can choose to
do it. I know in LaCounty a lot of people were punished for
not wearing a mask. That wasa big deal here in La County.
Well that there are consequences to certainchoices that you make sure, but if
you're going to go into a businessand not wear a mask as a form

(03:02):
of protest, when they explicitly say, you know, we're not allowing people
unless they're wearing masks, I meanthat's a consequence that you're gonna get.
I don't think that people were necessarilypunished for staying home and saying I don't
want to go out because I don'twant to wear a mask. I mean,
it's dependent on the situation. Okay, same question, Brian, do

(03:24):
you think the media has been unfairto Donald Trump? I don't think the
media has been unfair to anyone.I had to agree with Milan, I
don't. I see both sides attackingeach other, and I see both sides,
you know, pushing each other aswell. You know, I don't
think there's been any any no onehas been unfair to any of You don't

(03:47):
think something you don't. I thinkyou're also signing yourself to be up.
You're you're signing yourself up to bein that position in the limelight. You're
signing yourself up to be scrutinized.And if you feel like you're being scrutinized
unfairly, I'm sorry, but that'swhat you signed up up for. Kaya
same question, I think, well, being fair is that being truthful or
is that painting politicians in the bestlight. To me, being fair would

(04:12):
be focusing on these trivial, trivialaspects of these politicians and not focusing on
things that actually matter in their policiesand how it affects the people that they're
running for. So when you whenyou fact check, like for instance,
you know, the media couldn't getfact checking out fast enough after Trump spoke,

(04:32):
uh, you know, and itwas all about fact check, fact
check, and it was a longlist of things that the media said were
inaccurate about how he portrayed it.But did they do it with the same
zeal as they did with Biden orothers? No, I think Trump they
You're right, they fact checked andthey analyzed every single thing he said because

(04:57):
they're wary of him. But Ithink it's on both sides as well.
Each you know, the more rightwing news and media corporations are going to
be more harsh on left wing candidates, and the same could be said for
the left on right wing candidates.Do you know the right wing media outlets
and the left wing media outlets?I mean vaguely, I mean there's the

(05:19):
big ones. Vaguely, there's thebig ones. I mean, so you've
you identify the outlets you think arebiased? Yeah, I mean I think,
like I said, it's it's inyour best interest to look to everywhere
and sometimes go to these sites thatyou are maybe not completely comfortable with or

(05:40):
don't always align to your own politicalvalues. And now the question is do
you think the media will be fairto Kamala Harris and do you think they've
already been fair enough with her?I think her being a woman of color
is gonna hinder her a little bitin fairness in regards to media. So
I think that we will see anincrease in people stooping down to racist and

(06:04):
misogynistic levels to try to get ather and try to quote unquote own her
in terms of her politics. Okay, do you agree with that, Brian?
Uh, somewhat, because nowadays everyone'sasking for diversity. So woman of
color, how much diverse can youget in the White House? You know?

(06:26):
I think the media is gonna comeat her a little bit. Of
course, that's what they're gonna do. You know they're already coming at it.
Yeah, yeah, but there,but look at what she's look at
the numbers she's raising, look atthe money that she's been raising. Yeah.
So do you think really the mediais coverage of her or their perspective
on her? It really matters?Uh? Their perspective on her. Yes,

(06:49):
the way they're gonna portray her isgonna matter. But I still think
it's not gonna do too much.I think her being a woman of color
is gonna help her out something.It depends on what media. For example,
social media is a bit different thannews media outlets. On social media,
she's doing great right now. Imean, you've got memes coming out

(07:10):
about her. She's hitting the demographicthat Biden was unable to hit. And
there is a bit of a likesocial media frenzy. But interestingly enough,
Milan, when Biden was first runningfor president, this last I should say
first, but this last time youwere ran for president rant and one,
social media was his friend, yeah, and it now is it was not
his friend time. Now, whydo you think that happened? He's boring.

(07:32):
I'm this sounds like a shallow answer, and you know, I'm not
going to apologize for that, butI think that at a very basic level,
it was difficult to listen to him. He wasn't really doing the things
that he said he was entirely goingto do. He hit some stuff,
other things he didn't hit. Thestudent loan was you know, it was
a miss in a lot of differentways. He tried, but overall,
when I was listening to his debatewith Donald Trump, for example, I

(07:56):
have to say Donald Trump was alot more engaging, a lot more entertained.
Every time he spoke, my earsperked up. Every time that Biden
spoke, I just kind of lotlike my eyes got fuzzy. It felt
like I could I stopped listening alittle bit. As much as I was
trying to pay attention. It wasa little bit difficult. And I think
that him getting older is part ofthat. But I also just don't think
he has as much charisma as Trumphad, and you kind of need that

(08:20):
to stay relevant in social media.And don't you think that, you know,
the media's perspective has to change,because I think the media has gotten
beat up a lot over the lastfew years because I think a lot of
their bias has now been starkly obvious. Yeah, it's been drastically obvious that
their bias exists. And in themedia still is at the low, low,

(08:41):
low low end of the spectrum whenit comes to trust from the public,
and that's very discerning for me.It's I tell you, when I'm
in the field and I'll interview people, sometimes people are screaming fake news at
me and they have no idea whoI am. What I do if I
have a MIC flag which identifies mystation. If not, it's just crazy.
But I want to wrap up thistopic by playing you this cut from

(09:03):
Megan mcgartal. It was an appearanceshe had on the BBC and she's with
the Washington Post, and I thoughtthis was interesting because the Post, according
to professional organizations, lean's left.And I thought her assessment of how the
media has been over the last fewyears is brilliant. Here you go,
ask he is whether you think themedia has gone too far at times.

(09:26):
Yes, I think the media hasgone too far, but not in the
way necessarily that Tim Scott is suggesting. Look, I think I think Donald
Trump is. He is extraordinary.He has broken a lot of norms that
should not have been violated. Itwas totally appropriate to criticize that. I
will say that I think that themedia for the past eight years, really

(09:46):
especially during the Trump administration, decidedthat the issue that the solution to that
was for us to abandon our oldnorms of objectivity and trying to maintain neutrality
and to really go after him.And I think that was a bad decision,
not so much because it causes assassinations, but because it undercut trust in

(10:07):
the media, it undercuts social solidarity, and it left us actually in less
of a position to make the caseagainst Trump because people just took us as
being part of an actors rather thanpeople who are there making the first draft
of history. I think that's probablythe most succinct way to explain how the
media has been over the last eightyears, don't you, I would agree,

(10:28):
I agree, yeah, yeah.So that's why I want to ask
your opinions first before I play this, because I wanted to find out where,
you know, kind of where yourheads were at with the same topic.
And she makes an interesting point wherethe media somehow decided it was now
their job to go after Trump andprevent him from ever getting into office again,

(10:48):
as opposed to just staying the courseand observing and reporting. Do you
agree with her assessment? I thinkin some ways, yeah, I think
that a lot of maybe whether itwas individual people or was or it was
whole organizations, I think they tookhim demonizing the media too literally or not

(11:11):
literally, but they took it tooclose to heart, and I think in
a way it was kind of likeone of those moments you have when someone
is challenging you and you're supposed tostay your ground, like you know that's
the right move to do, butyou forget to and the emotions take over
and you decide to challenge them back. And I feel like maybe that's kind
of what happened you. That's twentysixteen as presidency. Right before that was
when the start of like fake newsstarted going viral and distrust in the media

(11:35):
started, you know, really progressingat its highest. And I think maybe
in that way, people who areworking within that field maybe felt offended and
maybe felt like, well, you'retrying to discredit us, We're going to
discredit you. In some ways,I think it was deserved in something ways
I think it wasn't, but Ido agree that it was the wrong move
to make because ultimately it made peoplelose trust. Yeah, And then what

(11:58):
had happened was that every time wewould go to an event, they would
shout fake news at me. AndI know it was hard to get our
jobs done because we were too busybeing hassled by the public. Whereas it
was interesting because years ago I couldgo anywhere and I was a neutral observer.
I was off to the side,no one ever bothered us. We

(12:18):
were left alone. Now in protests, we're targets. We have to wear
ballistic equipment now because we fear forour safety. We are now targets and
everything we do publicly and we're shoutedat constantly, And it never used to
be like that before President Trump.I would say, though, I do
feel to add to what she saidin that audio that you just played,

(12:41):
I do feel that Trump used thatto his advantage though, sure, and
I think that he really took thetime to kind of turn the tables on
that and make that part of hisbase, the fake news, all of
that to make sure that he madehis voters believe, with people that wanted
to vote for him, that I'mthe only one telling you the truth.
Yeah. No, you know.The thing is, he got his desired

(13:01):
result, he really did, buthe redid it at the expense of a
lot of people like myself that we'rejust trying to do the job. That's
it. I think he did itat the expense of listeners who just want
to be informed too, because noweveryone's confused. Okay, let's wrap that
up and move on to a newtopic. But first, if you're interested
or you know someone that might bea good candidate, to be one of
the panelists. Here go to KFIAMsix forty dot com slash studio and the

(13:26):
information on how to apply and theprocess is right there. The three panelists
sitting before me all went through thesame process. Or wasn't that hard?
Was it? No? No,no, it wasn't that hard. Yeah.
So but nonetheless, you know,we're opening this up for anyone from
colleges, universities, community colleges,and it doesn't matter the size of the

(13:46):
campus. And also they just haveto be a part of the student newspaper,
radio station, television station, podcast, anything that's officially sanctioned by the
university, and they are eligible.Let's move on to a new topic.
You know, we've covered some heavystuff already, but now you bring the
topic to the table. We discusswhat you want to talk about or what

(14:09):
your demographic wants to talk about.During one of the breaks, you submitted
your three stories. But during thebreak it had come up that maybe you
should talk about the Olympics, andwe're watching, we've been watching on one
of the mini TVs in here,some of the opening ceremonies from France,
and it had come up that maybewe should talk about the Olympics and at
least the politics around the Olympics.And it seems like an interesting topic and

(14:31):
that is something you all wanted todiscuss, right yeah, yeah, okay,
So Brian, you're the sports journalist. Yeah, I'm going to start
with you. First of all,are the Olympics relevant anymore? You know
what, I started getting interested inweightlifting. I'm not gonna lie. I

(14:52):
think that you have to be passionateabout this. Boy. Just put a
little bit of interest and you'll especiallyweight I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty
impressive how they move that weight.But and overall the Olympics, No,
I don't think they're that relevant anymore. I think there's so many other sports,
so many super Bowl them. Ithink even the All Star mob All

(15:13):
Star has more more push than theOlympics. Really, yeah, I think
so. Yeah. I mean probablyhere in the US. But you don't
think it's a great way to showpatriotism and show unity. Oh for sure.
I have never watched a swim meet, but I'm rooting for the girls
or and the men from the US. You know, I want them to
win. But you just think theOlympics overall or could have kind of played

(15:37):
out. Yeah, yeah, alittle bit. I'm not gonna lie.
Well on you you're shaking your head. No, no, I disagree.
I think the Olympics are probably likethe only sports that I'm not a huge
sport person. I like to playsports, I'm not huge on watching sports,
but the Olympics are probably the onlysports that I will really watched TV
along with my family. And myfamily they're all they're not none of them

(15:58):
are here. They're all immigrants.But I have never seen them be more
patriotic really. Yeah. Well,they'll also be patriotic to their home teams
too, but they really root forAmerica, And I can say that for
a lot of other people. Idon't think I've ever seen more patriotism from
unpatriotic people when it comes to theOlympics. So I do think that there
is a sense of unity that comeswith it, even with people who maybe

(16:21):
aren't super into sports. I getthe feeling of them almost becoming aggressive about
it. Kaya The issue with theOlympics also is politics and global politics,
and this is a there's always acontroversy around the Olympics. It doesn't really
matter what year it is, there'salways something going on behind the scenes,

(16:41):
and sadly, it always seems likethere's some sort of an international conflict of
some kind, and this year,of course, the issue is going on
in Israel. How do you thinkpolitics plays into this and do you think
it's something we should all be cognizantof. I mean, I think politics
absolutely plays into it. You're gettingpeople from every country to get together in

(17:03):
one way or another, and theysay that it's a political, but it
politics are always going to factor intoit. I mean, even if you
go to like a Eurovision where othercountries are coming together. In that sense,
politics came into to that conversation aswell. And I saw a lot
of people calling for them not toinclude Israel in this year's Olympics, and

(17:26):
I saw a lot of people upsetabout that. You're a demographic though your
students, that your your fellow classmates. Do you think they agree with your
views on this? I mean,did you have you ever discussed this amongst
your your your peers, Because thisis this was a big topic. Everyone
knew the Olympics were coming everyone andeven though you're not in school right now,

(17:47):
I mean, this was a bigdeal even back when you were in
school. Honestly we in my experience, I haven't really talked about the Olympics
with many of my peers, soI don't know where they stay on the
issues that come with it. Milanthe Olympics into politics. Same question to
you that I was talking about,do you do you think you know that

(18:10):
should be the place that truly staysa political But it is anything but a
political. I can't remember a timeit was ever a political. Well,
I think the major point of itin a way is political. It's the
idea is to unify countries around theglobe, regardless of background, race,
ethnicity, ideology. It's meant tounify countries even when there is you know,

(18:37):
when there are things going on thatare difficult or that are very heavily
politicized. But that does play intoit. And right now, for example,
I think we're excluding Russia from theOlympic Games because of what's going on
in Ukraine. And I think forthat reason, people are saying, Okay,
well, why aren't we excluding IsraelIf the ICJ is also saying that
net Yahoo's a war criminal, Likeif that's the reason, why aren't we

(19:00):
applying it to both? And that'sa political conversation, and then you've had
different things happen, you know,throughout history. In nineteen sixty eight Summer
Olympics in Mexico City, a bunchof students were killed for protesting their government,
for protesting the fact they were spendingso much money on the Olympics specifically,
and you had some Olympians who tryto stand in solidarity with them.

(19:23):
And a lot of the times,whether it's the athletes or whether it's the
coaches, whoever it is, theya lot of the times are not as
political. Sometimes they are depends onwho it is, but it politics does
play a big role. They getto exclude people or include people based on
politics. There have been terrorist attacksthat have happened during the games, there

(19:48):
have been protests that have gone on. There is huge amounts of money that
is involved in even creating the games. So I think it's hard, it's
almost impossible to separate the two.Almost to Brian's point, then maybe it
may be the time for the Olympicsis coming gone. But you know,
here's the other thing that we're missinghere too, is the economic impact it
has on the hosting city. Andthat's a big driver in all of this.

(20:11):
So listen, we're going to wrapup. Any parting thoughts. Any
what are you guys looking forward tothe most at school? Just getting back
to the newspaper, more issues.Yeah, starting at Long Beach, this
is going to be exciting. Isthis your first year Long Beach? Yeah,
you just graduated from Fulton College.Oh, got it, got it,
got it. Okay, So ifyou already you've been through uh orientation,

(20:32):
orientation and everything. Yeah, I'vebeen introduced to the newsroom and it's
it's a good it's a good staff. It's going to be really exciting.
Good good, Melan. I'm reallyexcited to get back to school. I'm
excited to be back in the newsroomand just being on the show. I
think I've learned a lot and I'mgoing to continue learning over the summer.
I'm excited to try some new stuffin the newsroom. Yeah. Good,

(20:53):
Well, it's crazy. That'll beAnxio. When were we ever excited to
go to school? I was justgoing to say that you guys have a
little more excitement than I did whenI was in school, for sure.
All of you. Thank you somuch, kaya Man, Brian Chaves,
Milan Raffaelov, appreciate you coming inand taking time out of your summer to
coming in. Appear on Studio sixforty